I THINK THE BEST THING THEY COULD DO IMPROVE TECH. IS CUT TAXES ON BUSINESS.
Such totally academic approaches once gave us things like the Pascal programming language, which remained a staple in computer science courses at colleges long after the real world of computer applications considered it dead (never really adopted it).
I would imagine the ERC will come up with some fantastic and brilliant...............................white elephants.
Businesses are into the business of solving real problems for real needs and they know the ability of basic scientific research to solve those problems (Bell Labs scientists made the first transistor). The academics, left on their own will ignore the real world, and the real world will applaud, and then ignore, their fabulous white elephants.
Fundamental research does not mean Blue Sky, and Blue Sky does not mean Fundamental research. Blue Sky has another meaning around here.
gold. Gold... GOLD!!!
oh. wait, never mind.